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Alan White from Yes: What The Beatles mean to me
Drummer played with Harrison and Lennon
Joe Bosso, Fri 11 Sep 2009, 1:37 pm UTC
"I got really close to George making that record. He was so sweet and open-hearted. Each day he'd come into the studio and run down a new song, and we got to work cutting it. There was no mucking around.
"George probably did have more definite ideas of what he wanted from the drums than John - I think he knew that this was going to be a very important album for him, so he wanted everything to be just right. I was amazed at how many songs he had - he must've been stockpiling them for years!"
When you were tracking My Sweet Lord, did it occur to you that it sounded like He's So Fine?
"No! There was never any talk of it, nor did I think it bore any resemblance. I was so surprised when that lawsuit came down. When you listen to the two songs back-to-back, they're not that similar. Totally different songs, different meanings."
You joined Yes in 1972, but before this you played with John again on the Imagine album.
"Another beautiful experience. I remember when were cutting the song Imagine, John came in, sat down at the piano and played it, and we were all taken aback - 'Wow, that's really special!'
"I came up with what I thought was an appropriate approach to the song, nothing really complicated, but that's what the song called for. After three takes, we all kind of looked at each other and said, 'Hey, that's a keeper!' [laughs]
Jim Keltner played on some cuts, but you tracked most of the album.
"Yeah. Jealous Guy, Gimme Some Truth…I remember, before we cut Gimme Some Truth, I said to everybody, 'OK, we all have to be very angry.' [laughs]
"The song was such a direct political statement, there was no way we could play it lightly, you know? We had to attack it. I played a straight four on the verses on the floor tom and the snare and then on the angry parts I played four on the bar on the snare, along with a very sloshy hi-hat part. The drums had to really cut."
